Double the number of students taking advanced math and passing it, from 10 to 15 percent of the students to 25 percent.

Make sure that every student has had a geometry course before taking the FCAT, which tests geometry knowledge. Now, fewer than half the students have had the material before the test.

Divide fifth-grade students into five ability tracks. The top level would take pre-algebra in the sixth grade. That eventually would double the number of students learning algebra before high school and position even the lowest-achieving students for geometry by the 10th grade.

Cowin also says parents should grade her performance partly on whether FCAT scores rise. The superintendent said she believes in accountability and that she's willing to name specific scores that will rate as "success." But she said she can't do it until she sees this year's scores.

Her other two measurements of success are increasing the percentage of kids who finish high school from 73 percent of those who start the ninth grade to 80 percent, and raising the scores of fourth-graders who take the FCAT writing exam from an average score of 3.5 to at least the state average of 3.7.

Cowin said the first step is for every parent and teacher to have online access to a student's progress.

"Zeroing in on the problem builds instant communication," she said.

Within a year, she said, the computer system to create that line of communication will be operating in Lake.

The second step is to teach to students' weaknesses. Recent research shows that students learn math better, for example, when it's taught in another class, she said.

"We can have them figure the times of the music or the curtain call in drama," she said.

That will involve team-teaching on the individual level, which is rarely done now because of the volume of students.

However, it's the theory behind the Milken Family Foundation's grant to Lake County schools, which could be tested in Mascotte Elementary, Gray Middle and South Lake High next year if teachers agree.

And the foundation's theories -- which she says are admired widely by educators -- fit with her passion for K-8 schools. The buildings can be architecturally designed to keep older kids and younger kids separated while providing the perfect venue for team-teaching.

Step No. 3 is to teach the same material in the same grades in classrooms across the district, which isn't being done now.